Broken Marionette
by Gentle Caress
Summary: After all, a puppet with cut strings is no more than a broken doll.


**Disclaimer: I do not claim anything seen in the story except the plot.**

He had absolutely no idea how long he had lain on the dusty wooden shelf, in a corner of the doll shop that sat snugly between a small bookstore and a dull gray wall. Time seemed to flow and exclude him. The young children he had seen joyfully rushing into the shop with chocolate covered fingers and shirts stained with paint had grown up over the years, one by one appearing with children of their own, but still, the shop became forgotten and the doll maker passed away, his son taking over the shop.

He recalled once, long ago when he had been a living, breathing, boy. He had a mother and four sisters though their faces all blurred out after the years gone by. He recalled what he must have looked long ago when he stood in front of a mirror, tousled bronze hair with glimmering amber eyes. Now the body he inhabited was a laughingstock of what he once had, with broken limbs made out of rotting wood and thin, fragile strands of brown dyed straw for hair. His eyes remained the same, however, though they were now replaced with dirty pieces of stained glass, reflecting the light through murky depths.

He also remembered, a girl with the most captivating of smiles, and honeyed brown hair framing rosy cheeks. A girl with eyes that had the most comforting warmth within them, shining like captive fireflies within an emerald green glass jar. A girl who had once told him "I love you!" In the most sincere way possible that even he, who had once been mistrusting of people could not doubt the emotions behind those three words. He was willing to give up everything to see her one last time but it was not possible. She surely would have gone on to that place mortals called 'Heaven'. She was pure and honest in the sweetest way possible that he would not believe if she had not. However, he did wish to meet her once more.

One day, when the doll maker's son had opened the small shop for the day though the doll didn't know why he did that, nobody ever came in any more and the shop was all but forgotten, a mere shadow of what it used to be, a girl stepped in, looking no older than sixteen. She spoke with the doll maker's son-who introduced himself as John Smith- in hushed tones but quite suddenly turned her gaze to lock onto his still form. Her eyes widened with disbelief and joy and she rushed over, cradling him in her arms and fished out a tiny necklace with a silver chain and a crystal heart glinting red in the lamplight of the shop.

The doll and John watched quietly though nobody knew the former was even sentient at all-or so he thought. The girl slipped the necklace over the doll's head and placed the doll onto the floor as both her and John watched with fascination and in her case, relief and ecstasy as the necklace sunk into the doll's wooden body and the doll itself began to morph. His arms and legs lengthened, glassy eyes blinking as they regained the light that had previously emitted from within and before long, a young man dressed in rags was sitting on the stone floor, obviously bewildered as he flexed his fingers as if to make sure he really was there and alive.

A choked gasp sounded from the girl just then and the boy sitting on the floor looked past the stunned John to the crying girl, tears streaming past her eyes as the covered her mouth with delicate hands, nearly collapsing in relief. She mumbled something and he was shocked out of words, everything that he had been before a doll came into perfect clarity, including his name and hers.

"S-Syaoran..."

He smiled at her, one full of love and tenderness as he shakily stood up on unsteady legs and wrapped his arms around her slim frame, speaking in a hoarse voice that had obviously not been used in a long time.

"I'm back, Sakura."

**~fin~**

**A/N: Now some footnotes, basically they were in an alternate dimension after Syaoran had been cursed to live as a doll and flung in. Sakura had obviously came after him and while it felt like centuries to him, it had only been a few years to her who had finally gotten word that he was in this dimension and arrived to find out if it was true, understand that? Yes? Good.**

**Annnnnnnnnnywaaaaaaays... Please R and R and tell me what you thought about this story, thanks!**


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